Cannes 2013: Directors' Fortnight

12 May, 2013

The full line-up of films in Directors’ Fortnight at the 66th Cannes Film Festival with details on each title including sales contacts.

Ain’t Misbehavin (Fr)

Dir Marcel Ophüls

Eighteen years after his last feature, 85-year-old master documentarian Ophüls, director of seminal films The Sorrow And The Pity and Hotel Terminus, comes to Cannes with Ain’t Misbehavin (Un Voyageur), an autobiography that uses archive and film clips. Ophüls talks with and about personalities including Jeanne Moreau, Bertolt Brecht, Ernst Lubitsch, Otto Preminger, Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick and Francois Truffaut.

Ate Ver A Luz (Switz-Port)

DirBasil da Cunha

After debuting at Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes last year with short film The Living Also Cry, da Cunha now brings his first feature. Released from jail, Sombra returns to his life as a drug dealer in a Lisbon slum. Taking into account the money he has lent and cannot recoup, the money he owes, an invasive little girl and a paranoid ringleader, he begins to think he was better off in prison.

Blue Ruin (US)

Dir Jeremy Saulnier

Thriller Blue Ruin arrives on the Croisette courtesy of a Kickstarter campaign and tells of a mysterious homeless person who learns terrible news about a past tragedy so sets off for his childhood home to right a wrong. His clumsy efforts at playing hitman see him embroiled in a fight to the death.

The Congress (Isr-Ger-Pol-Lux-Fr-Bel)

DirAri Folman

OPENING FILM: Adapted from Polish writer Stanislaw Lem’s sci-fi novel The Futurological Congress, Folman’s The Congress mixes live action and animation to tell the story of a Hollywood star who sells her scanned image to a studio for use in future films. Folman was last in Cannes in 2008 with the Oscar-nominated Waltz With Bashir, which also won the Golden Globe for best foreign film.

The Dance Of Reality (Chile-Fr)

DirAlejandro Jodorowsky

Marking Jodorowsky’s first feature film since 1990’s The Rainbow Thief, The Dance Of Reality (La Danza De La Realidad) is an imaginary autobiography of Jodorowsky’s childhood and is based on the director’s book of the same name. Pathé handles international sales and will release the film in France on July 10. It was shot in the Chilean coastal town of Tocopilla, where Jodorowsky was born.

Henri (Fr)

Dir Yolande Moreau

A comedy-drama set against the backdrop of a small restaurant on a B-road in Belgium run by Henri and Rita, in their fifties and enduring rather than enjoying their marriage. When Rita dies suddenly, a distraught Henri struggles to run the business until the arrival of Rosette, who brings enthusiasm and joy back into his life. Directed by actress Yolande Moreau, who starred in Séraphine and Amelie.

Ilo Ilo (Sing)

Dir Anthony Chen

Chen’s flm debut is set in Singapore in the 1990s and details the relationship between a young boy and his maid Teresa (Angeli Bayani) from Iloilo, a province in the Philippines. Bayani has described the film as Chen’s “tribute to the Filipino nanny who raised him. It’s about the conflict between cultures… how Singaporeans are coming to terms with the idea that their children are being cared for by Filipinos.”

Jodorowsky’s Dune (Fr)

Dir Frank Pavich

A documentary exploration of Chilean film-maker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s plan to make an adaption of Frank Herbert’s cult sci-fi novel Dune. Jodorowsky signed a deal in 1974 to make the film, recruiting artists such as Jean ‘Moebius’ Giraud, Chris Foss and Dan O’Bannon (who later worked on Alien) and writing his own adaptation of the epic novel. The project collapsed after two years of pre-production when funds ran out and US studios showed a lack of interest in the script.

The Last Days On Mars (UK-Ire)

DirRuairi Robinson

Liev Schreiber, Romola Garai, Elias Koteas and Olivia Williams star in this sci-fi film produced by the UK’s Qwerty Films and co-produced by Ireland’s Fantastic Films. Robinson was Oscar nominated in 2002 for his short Fifty Percent Grey, and Mars is his feature debut.

Les Apaches (Fr)

DirThierry de Peretti

French actor de Peretti makes his directorial debut with the story of four teenagers in Corsica who break into an unoccupied luxury home and steal some worthless objects and two shotguns. It is based on a true story from 2008 when the body of a 17-year-old was found in Corsica and three teenagers were arrested and jailed for murder.

Magic Magic (US)

Dir Sebastian Silva

The Chilean director of The Maid brought two new films to Sundance this year. Of the two, Magic Magic takes the darker path. Juno Temple, Emily Browning, Michael Cera and Catalina Sandino Moreno star in the Killer Films project about a member of a group of US tourists in Chile who suffers a breakdown in the desolate landscape.

Me, Myself And Mum (Fr-Bel)

DirGuillaume Gallienne

Diane Kruger, Francoise Fabian and Gallienne himself star in his directorial feature debut, which covers the director’s own battle for identity, his professional struggles, the women in his life and his heterosexual coming out at the age of 30. It is based on his eponymous one-man play that won the Moliere Award for best male newcomer in 2010. Gallienne had a supporting role in Sylvie Verheyde’s Confession Of A Child Of The Century, which was selected for Un Certain Regard in 2012.

On The Job (Phil)

DirErik Matti

This hitman action-thriller was inspired by a real-life corruption scandal that involved inmates on day-release who worked as hired killers for crooked politicians. It stars Joel Torre, Piolo Pascual and Gerald Anderson. In 1996 Matti won the best screenplay prize for Magic Temple at Metro Manila Film Festival and his previous film, Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles (2012), was nominated for both director and screenwriter of the year prizes at Philippine Movie Press Club’s Star Awards for Movies.

The Rendez-vous Of Déja Vu (Fr)

DirAntonin Peretjatko

Written and directed by Peretjatko, The Rendez-vous Of Déja Vous (La Fille Du 14 Juillet) follows Hector and Pator whose plan to seduce two girls by taking them on a trip to the coast is threatened by the government’s decision to shorten the summer holidays. Peretjatko’s feature debut will be released in France on June 5 through Shellac.

The Selfish Giant (UK)

Dir Clio Barnard

Barnard’s follow up to her debut, The Arbor, is again produced by Tracy O’Riordan and it centres on two teenage boys caught up in the world of copper theft. The contemporary fable is based loosely on Oscar Wilde’s eponymous short story. Barnard won multiple awards for documentary hybrid The Arbor, including the Douglas Hickox Award at the British Independent Film Awards, best screenplay at the Evening Standard British Film Awards and best British newcomer at the BFI London Film Festival.

Stop-Over (Switz-Fr)

DirKaveh Bakhtiari

Bakhtiari’s documentary Stop-Over (L’Escale) follows a group of migrants from Iran seeking a better life, one of whom is the director’s cousin, Mohsen, who finds shelter in Athens at a boarding house for illegal immigrants run by Amir. The film is produced by Elizabeth Garbar and Heinz Dill, who also produced Berlin 2012 Forum title Winter Nomads.

A Strange CourseOf Events (Isr-Fr)

DirRaphael Nadjari

Franco-Israeli director Nadjari returns to Cannes for the third time (Tehilim was nominated for the Palme d’Or in 2007 and Apartment #5C selected for Directors’ Fortnight in 2002). The film centres on Shaul, a solitary divorced man visiting his father who introduces him to alternative routes to rediscover his optimism.

The Summer OfFlying Fish (Chile-Fr)

DirMarcela Said

Teenager Manena spends the summer at her family’s mansion in rural Temuco, Chile. While her father is obsessed with exterminating the carp in his pond, only Manena is aware of the futility of the whole situation and the threat of guerrilla warfare encircling them. The drama marks Chilean documentarist Said’s first narrative feature. Her documentary The Young Butler screened in Berlin’s Forum.

Tip Top (Fr-Bel-Lux)

Dir Serge Bozon

Bozon’s follow-up to his 2007 debut feature La France (which won the Prix Jean Vigo), Tip Top stars Isabelle Huppert and Sandrine Kiberlain as two inspectors from the police complaints branch, sent to a provincial police station to investigate a possible case of corruption. The drama is based on the novel by Welsh author Bill James.

Ugly (Ind)

DirAnurag Kashyap

Prolific Indian writer-director-producer Kashyap, whose crime-thriller Gangs Of Wasseypur debuted in Directors’ Fortnight last year, returns with the story of an alcoholic who reunites with her ex-husband when their child is kidnapped. Tejaswini Kolhapure and Ronit Roy star. Kashyap is co-director on Bombay Talkies and co-producer on Dabba and Monsoon Shootout, which also have Cannes berths.

We Are What We Are (US)

Dir Jim Mickle

This English-language remake of Jorge Michel Grau’s 2010 Mexican tale Somos Lo Que Hay — a Directors’ Fortnight entry in 2010 — was one of the sleeper hits at Sundance after its world premiere in January. Mickle follows up his acclaimed Stake Land and Mulberry Street with this creepy tale about the widowed patriarch of a cannibal clan and his teenage daughters. Bill Sage, Ambyr Childers, Kelly McGillis and Julia Garner star. US distributor is eOne.

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